AusLeisure

Reports have emerged revealing details of the accident at a Brisbane gym which has left a man fighting for his life after being crushed by equipment.

As reported by media outlets, the injured man lay alone for 33 minutes after being crushed by weights at Snap Fitness in the central Brisbane suburb of Spring Hill - which is believed to have been unstaffed at the time of the incident.

It is understood a weight fell on the man, aged between 25 and 35, while he was doing an overhead press during an early morning gym session at 5.47am on Thursday.

Firefighters arrived at 6.20am to rescue him, with paramedics arriving shortly afterwards. Reports say it took six minutes to extract the man from under the weights.

By this point, the man was in unconscious and required CPR.

While waiting for emergency services, the man was helped by bystanders.

Subsequently, one gym member wrote online “his injury happened while doing a seated overhead press in a Smith machine.

“Didn’t seem life-threatening to begin with, although serious enough to call an ambulance.

“But it took about 10 to 15 minutes for it to get really serious, that is ‘he-is-now-unconscious-start-CPR-now’ serious.”

Queensland Ambulance Service Clinical Director Lachlan Parker said the man was taken by ambulance to Royal Brisbane and Women‘s Hospital in a critical condition, advising “it’s unknown exactly what happened but it does appear that he had been struck by a weight at the gym, causing his head and chest to suffer significant injuries.”

Parker praised the care provided by the bystanders in the unattended gym that helped the man significantly before paramedics arrived, adding “they were highly active and engaged in treating the patient before we arrived.”

Parker went on to caution gymgoers to be careful when working out with heavy equipment, noting “in a perfect environment we should always be with people when we’re at the gym and you should always have a good understanding of how that gym equipment works.

“In case you’re at the gym, when something happens to someone else, you should always make sure you understand where their defibrillators are, how to call triple-0 and provide any assistance that you may need to do.”

In a statement, Snap Fitness stated that it was aware of an “accident” at its Spring Hill gym, commenting “the safety and wellbeing of our members is our highest priority, and our team is saddened to hear of the condition of the member.

“We take our duty of care responsibilities very seriously and have provided the members who witnessed and assisted with the incident access to counselling services and support.”

The gym is staffed between 10am and 7pm, Monday to Thursday, and 9am to 2pm on Friday.

Workplace Health and Safety Queensland (WorkSafe Queensland) is understood to be investigating the incident.

Image: Snap Fitness Spring Hill. Image used for illustrative purposes only. Credit: Snap Fitness.

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